Rethinking drafts. What the top 10 of the last 10 drafts should have been

[nickagneta]

Monday morning quarterbacking can be so much fun so with the draft around the corner and everyone putting together their mocks, sometimes its fun to look back and see how the draft played out and maybe how it should have played out.

2013

1    Micheal Carter Williams over Anthony Bennett    
2    Victor Oladipo    
3    Trey Burke over Otto Porter    
4    Nerlens Noel over Cody Zeller    
5    Alex Len       
6    Tim Hardaway Jr. over Nerlens Noel
7    Mason Plumlee over Ben McLemore
8    Kelly Olynyk over Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
9    Pero Antic over Trey Burke

10    Giannis Antetokuombo over C.J. McCollum 2012 1      Anthony Davis 2    Damian Lillard over Michael Kidd-Gilchrist 3    Bradley Beal 4    Andre Drummond over Dion Waiters 5    Jared Sullinger over Thomas Robinson 6    Terrence Jones over Damian Lillard 7    Harrison Barnes 8    Terrence Ross     9    Dion Waiters over Andre Drummond 10    Draymond Green over Austin Rivers 2011 1    Kyrie Irving 2    Klay Thompson over Derrick Williams 3    Chandler Parsons over Enes Kanter     4    Kenneth Faried over Tristan Thompson     5    Isaiah Thomas over Jonas Valančiūnas     6    Kemba Walkerover Jan Vesel?     7    Nikola Vucevic over Bismack Biyombo 8    Jonas Valunciunas over Brandon Knight 9    Tristian Thomas over Kemba Walker 10    Markieff Morris over Jimmer Fredette 2010 1    Paul George over John Wall 2    DeMarcus Cousins over Evan Turner 3    John Wall over Derrick Favors 4    Greg Monroe over Wesley Johnson 5    Lance Stephenson over DeMarcus Cousins 6    Gordon Haywood over Ekpe Udoh 7    Eric Bledsoe over Greg Monroe 8    Derrick Favors over Al-Farouq Aminu 9    Larry Sanders over Gordon Hayward 10    Avery Bradley Paul George 2009 1    Blake Griffin 2    James Harden over Hasheem Thabeet 3    Stephen Curry over James Harden 4    DeMar DeRozan over Tyreke Evans 5    Ty Lawson over Ricky Rubio 6    Tyreke Evans over Jonny Flynn 7    Jrue Holiday over Stephen Curry 8    Taj Gibson over Jordan Hill 9    Gerald Henderson  over DeMar DeRozan 10    Brandon Jennings 2008 1    Russell Westbrook over Derrick Rose 2    Kevin Love over Michael Beasley 3    Derrick Rose over O. J. Mayo 4    Serge Ibaka over Russell Westbrook 5    Roy Hibbert over Kevin Love 6    Brook Lopez over Danilo Gallinari 7    DeAndre Jordan over Eric Gordon 8    Nicolas Batum over Joe Alexander 9    Goran Dragic over D. J. Augustin 10    Nicola Pekovic over Brook Lopez+ 2007 1    Kevin Durant over Greg Oden 2    Marc Gasol over Kevin Durant 3    Al Horford 4    Joakim Noah over Mike Conley, Jr. 5    Mike Conley Jr. over Jeff Green 6    Jeff Green over Yi Jianlian 7    Arron Afflalo over Corey Brewer 8    Thadeus Young over Brandan Wright 9    Tiago Splitter over Joakim Noah 10    Wilson Chandler over Spencer Hawes 2006 1    LaMarcus Aldridge over Andrea Bargnani 2    Rajon Rondo over LaMarcus Aldridge 3    Paul Millsap over Adam Morrison 4    Brandon Roy over Tyrus Thomas 5    Kyle Lowry over Shelden Williams 6    Rudy Gay over Brandon Roy 7    J.J Redick over Randy Foye 8    Andrea Bargnani over Rudy Gay 9    Randy Foye over Patrick O'Bryant 10    Thabo Sefolosha over Mouhamed Sene 2005 1    Chris Paul over Andrew Bogut 2    Deron Williams over Marvin Williams 3    David Lee over Deron Williams 4    Danny Granger over Chris Paul 5    Andrew Bogut over Raymond Felton 6    Andrew Bynum over Martell Webster 7    Monte Ellis over Charlie Villanueva 8    Marcin Gortat over Channing Frye 9    Ersan Ilyasova over Ike Diogu 10    Andray Blatche over Andrew Bynum 2004 1    Dwight Howard 2    Andre Iguodala over Emeka Okafor 3    Al Jefferson over Ben Gordon 4    Luol Deng over Shaun Livingston 5    Josh Smith over Devin Harris 6    Emeka Okafor Josh Childress 7    Tony Allen over Luol Deng 8    Anderson Varejao over Rafael Arajo 9    Kevin Martin over Andre Iguodala 10    Jameer Nelson over Luke Jackson

[pearljammer10]

Wow. This is awesome. TP for the work.

[saltlover]

Pero Antic really shouldn't be included, as he wasn't in the 2013 draft, and he's also in his early 30s, so clearly he should be better than a lot of 20 year olds.  It'd make a lot more sense to include him in the 2003 draft than the 2013 draft.

[LilRip]

wow, some of these drafts are pretty stacked!

[BigAlTheFuture]

I think you forgot about Kawhi Leonard in 2011. He should be top 3

[Roy H.]

George vs. Cousins vs. Wall is an interesting debate.

Due to George's playoff success, I think he deserves to be ranked first.  If we did the re-ranking in another 5 - 10 years, though, I think any of those guys could rise to #1.

[Celtics18]

TP Nick,

I can't say that I agree 100% with your rankings, but it does illustrate that the draft is always full of surprises with many of the top players in a given draft taken from all over the board.

It should serve as a caveat for those who think that for some reason this draft will be any different than any of the previous drafts. 

 

[jambr380]

Wow, a lot of time and effort went into this - I enjoyed reading through all the names.

The only thing that is a little confusing sounding to me is how you say 'over' in between each pick. Obviously you would take MCW over Bennett, but there are other times, like when you say [for example] Danny Granger over Chris Paul, when you already had Chris Paul listed ahead of him in your rankings. I understand that you are simply doing a new ranking and listing the actual order next to each pick, but it may be a bit easier to read if it were something like, Danny Granger (Danny Granger).

I get it, I am nitpicking, but it's because this deserves to be much more than a simple thread topic - article on the front page maybe, Yahoo! Sports, perhaps? Great job, Nick - TP

[bdm860]

You know 2013 was bad when a guy who hasn't even played a game yet moves up 2 spots.

[Donoghus]

You know 2013 was bad when a guy who hasn't even played a game yet moves up 2 spots.

I know we're only one year in but that draft looks horrible.

[33-00-32]

There were some really terrible picks in the Rondo draft year (2006).

Nice job on the list Nick.

[Celtics18]

I decided to expand on Nick's awesome idea and look back at the 10 drafts preceding the ones posted:

2003

1. Lebron James (actual pick, 1)
2.  Dwayne Wade (5)
3.  Carmelo Anthony (3)
4.  Chris Bosh (4)
5.  David West (18)
6.  Boris Diaw (21)
7.  Kirk Hinrich (7)
8.  Kyle Korver (51)
9.  Nick Collison (12)
10.  Mo Williams (47)

2002

1.  Amare Stoudemire (9)
2.  Yao Ming (1)
3.  Carlos Boozer (34)
4.  Nene (7)
5.  Tayshaun Prince (23)
6.  Caron Butler (10)
7.  Luis Scola (55)
8.  Matt Barnes (45)
9.  Mike Dunleavy (3)
10.  Drew Gooden (4)

2001

1.  Tony Parker (28)
2.  Pau Gasol (3)
3.  Tyson Chandler (2)
4.  Joe Johnson (10)
5.  Zach Randolph (19)
6.  Richard Jefferson (13)
7.  Shane Battier (6)
8.  Jason Richardson (5)
9.  Gerald Wallace (25)
10.  Mehmet Okur (37)

2000

1.  Jamal Crawford (
2.  Mike Miller (5)
3.  Hedo Turkoglu (16)
4.  Kenyon Martin (1)
5.  Michael Redd (43)
6.  Morris Peterson (21)
7.  Quentin Richardson (18)
8.  Jamaal Magloire (19)
9.  Desmond Mason (17)
10.  Eddie House (37)

1999

1.  Manu Ginobili (57)
2.  Shawn Marion (9)
3.  Lamar Odom (4)
4.  Jason Terry (10)
5.  Elton Brand (1)
6.  Baron Davis (3)
7.  Rip Hamilton (7)
8.  Andrei Kirilenko (24)
9.  Ron Artest (16)
10.  Steve Francis (2)

1998

1.  Dirk Nowitzki (9)
2.  Paul Pierce (10)
3.  Vince Carter (5)
4.  Rashard Lewis (32)
5.  Antawn Jamison (4)
6.  Mike Bibby (2)
7.  Al Harrington (25)
8.  Cuttino Mobley (41)
9.  Matt Harpring (15)
10.  Raef Lafrentz (3)

1997

1.  Tim Duncan (1)
2.  Tracy McGrady (9)
3.  Chauncey Billups (3)
4.  Stephen Jackson (42)
5.  Keith Van Horn (2)
6.  Derek Anderson (13)
7.  Tony Battie (5)
8.  Antonio Daniels (4)
9.  Tim Thomas (7)
10.  Brevin Knight (16)

1996

1.  Kobe Bryant (13)
2.  Steve Nash (15)
3.  Allen Iverson (1)
4.  Ray Allen (5)
5.  Jermaine O'Neal (17)
6.  Marcus Camby (2)
7.  Steph Marbury (4)
8.  Antoine Walker (6)
9.  Zydrunas Ilguaskas (20)
10.  Derek Fisher (24)

1995

1.  Kevin Garnett (5)
2.  Rasheed Wallace (4)
3.  Michael Finley (21)
4.  Jerry Stackhouse (3)
5.  Antonio McDyess (2)
6.  Damon Stoudemire (7)
7.  Joe Smith (1)
8.  Theo Ratliff (18)
9.  Kurt Thomas (10)
10.  Brent Barry (15)

1994

1.  Jason Kidd (2)
2.  Grant Hill (3)
3.  Jalen Rose (13)
4.  Eddie Jones (10)
5.  Glenn Robinson (1)
6.  Juwan Howard (5)
7.  Brian Grant (
8.  Donyell Marshall (4)
9.  Wesley Person (23)
10.  Aaron McKie (17)

[BigAlTheFuture]

Now lets put all these drafts together.

1. Duncan
2. Lebron
3. Garnett
4. Bryant

Etc....

[bdm860]

What would be really cool would be to see something like this every year.  Just think how trends/opinions change year to year.  Maybe the 2005 class goes something like this:

2005 in 2006:
1    Chris Paul
2    Charlie Villanueva
3    Andrew Bogut
4    Channing Frye
5    Marvin Williams
6    Deron Williams
7    Danny Granger
8    Raymond Felton
9    Luther Head
10  Ryan Gomes

After 2007, people might have put Deron #1 (but then Chris Paul would likely be #1 every year after that).

You'd see guys like Charlie Villanueva (who finished 2nd in ROY), rise fast then quickly fall off the charts, same with Channing Frye.  You'd see a guy like Marvin Williams probably slide down 1 or 2 spots every year.

Maybe around '08 and '09 Bynum goes top 10, top 5 in '10, back to top 10 in '11, top 3 in '12, off the charts in '14.

Danny Granger becomes top 2-3 for a a few seasons. 

Guys like Monta Ellis and David Lee go from not ranked at first to top 5 and top 10, and then Lee slowly rises every year to top 5, while Ellis drops a little  in the following years to 7-8.

Gerald Green might crack the top 10 after his 2nd season. 

Nate Robinson might crack the top 10 after 2009.

With the only consistent guys probably being Chris Paul at 1-2 every year, and Bogut maybe staying bewtween 3-6.



Or think about if you rethought the '96 draft every year.  How long would Iverson have been #1 for over Kobe?  Think about how guys like Antoine, Camby, and Abdur-Rahim would be top 5 for the first few seasons afterwards, and then how guys like Kobe, Nash, Peja, and Jermaine O'Neal would rise from out of nowhere.  Kerry Kittles would have probably been drafted in the top 6-7 for the first couple revisions.

[nickagneta]

The reason I put "over" was to in one sentence show who I thought should have been drafted while showing who was drafted.

Was very surprised by how many 2nd rounders became top 10 players in their drafts.

Some drafts I had to really make some hard decisions about who should be in the top 10 and who shouldn't. A couple of other years, I barely found 10 good players.